18 killed, forensics HQ wrecked in Baghdad car bomb

Tue, 01/26/2010 - 05:05 EDT - France24.com - Business

A suicide attacker Tuesday blew up his vehicle as he raced it at Iraq's forensics headquarters in central Baghdad, killing 18 people, injuring 80 and destroying the building, officials said.The attack came a day after three huge minibus bombs targeting hotels killed dozens in the Iraqi capital and amid heightened tension following the hanging of Saddam Hussein's notorious henchman "Chemical" Ali Hassan al-Majid.

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BAGHDAD – A series of car bombs exploded across Iraq’s capital Saturday night, killing at least 52 people in a day of violence that saw militants storm a university in the country’s restive Anbar province and take dozens hostage, authorities said.

Saddam Hussein's notorious henchman "Chemical Ali" was executed on Monday, an Iraqi government spokesman said, a sentence carried out around a week after he received a fourth death sentence."The condemned Ali Hassan al-Majid has been executed by hanging until death today," said spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh in a statement.

Dozens of Iraqis on Wednesday gathered at the grave of "Chemical Ali" the notorious cousin and henchman of Saddam Hussein who was executed for gassing thousands of Kurds in 1988, an AFP reporter said.He was buried late Tuesday in the town of Ouja near Tikrit beside six other graves, including those of Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay, and near the marble tomb of Saddam himself.Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known by his macabre nickname, was hanged on Monday for crimes committed during Saddam's reign, including the gassing of around 5,000 Kurds in the northern town of Halabja.

Dozens of Iraqis gathered at the grave of "Chemical Ali" in northern Iraq on Wednesday to praise the cousin and notorious henchman of Saddam Hussein who was executed for gassing thousands of Kurds in 1988."He was one of Ouja's most remarkable men," said Abu Shehab, a 45-year-old man who insisted that Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known by his macabre nickname, had been hanged to appease Iran and the United States."The execution of Majid was done to satisfy the American and Iranian governments, but he will always be one of the icons of Iraq," Shehab told AFP.

BAGHDAD: A car bomb at a popular auto dealership Saturday killed 13 people and injured 52 in eastern Baghdad's volatile Sadr City neighborhood, where a market bombing two days earlier killed dozens, police said. The Habibiya car dealership, widely-known for buying and selling used vehicles, has been targeted multiple times in the past. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a communique distributed via affiliated Twitter accounts, saying the vehicle targeted a large gathering of the Iraqi army, federal police and government-backed Popular Mobilization Forces.

KHAN BANI SAAD (IRAQ): Iraq mourned its dead on Saturday after one of the deadliest car bombs in its bloody history ripped through a busy market north of Baghdad and killed at least 90 people. The suicide attack by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group came as the country marked Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Residents recounted scenes of horror in the aftermath of Friday's attack, in which officials said at least 15 children were among the dead.

A suicide car bomber exploded his vehicle in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least five people and destroying the government's forensics headquarters, an interior ministry official said.The explosion also injured at least 20 people, with the toll expected to rise as many people were believed to be in the building at the time, the official said."The building collapsed soon after the explosion. Dozens of people usually work in the (forensics) institute," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber driving a vehicle packed with explosives blew himself up outside the offices of a major Kurdish party in northern Iraq early Wednesday, the deadliest in a wave of morning attacks that killed at least 31 people across the country.